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Then-Vice President Dick Cheney (l) and Likud chairman Benyamin Netanyahu, out of office at the time and serving as the official Israeli opposition leader, at a March 23, 2008 breakfast meeting at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. (PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
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August 2012, Page 55
Human Rights
Journalists' Security On-Site and Online
Journalists need to make security a high priority and using the new free Journalist Security Guide they can take precautions. (Photo Courtesy CPJ)
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Internews cohosted a June 13 panel discussion at the Human Rights Campaign headquarters in Washington, DC on security in the ever-changing world of journalism. Speakers promoted CPJ publications, including Attacks on the Press in 2011 and the new Journalist Security Guide, compiled by panelists Frank Smyth, CPJ senior adviser for journalist security, and Danny O'Brien, CPJ Internet advocacy coordinator. The two were joined by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, senior correspondent and associate editor of The Washington Post, and Kathleen Reen of Internews, an international non-profit organization whose mission is to empower local media worldwide.
Smyth, as the primary author of the Journalist Security Guide, which can be downloaded for free at <http://cpj.org/security/guide.pdf>, noted the shifting nature of the journalism industry in a dangerous and changing world. "Front-line news gatherers" are working with less "institutionalized support" than ever before, he stated. The number of free-lance journalists reporting on conflicts is increasing, Smyth added, and they are facing more violence.
"It's a double-barrel problem," O'Brien emphasized, "because there is increased interest in journalists as targets and decreased support for them." The Security Guide is intended as a go-to for journalists whose security is potentially at risk.
Chandrasekaran, who covered the U.S. invasion of Iraq as well as the war in Afghanistan, brought his real-world experience into the mix. As the Post's bureau chief in Baghdad, he said he found that journalists all too often appear in dangerous scenarios without the necessary background knowledge. Security is now a core aspect of reporting, he noted.
O'Brien, who is also a chief activist with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, focused on digital security. "Journalists say they will go to jail to protect their sources," he pointed out, but rarely follow through by securing their digital footprints to maintain that protection.
O'Brien also stressed the importance of lobbying companies like Facebook and Google to make their products more protective of data. In the case of the Arab Spring, governments utilized digital surveillance to an unparalleled degree, he said. Passwords for Tunisian Facebook and Yahoo users were "scooped up" by their government to prevent the spread of viral videos. O'Brien confirmed that the Egyptian government had hacked into Skype accounts to record conversations during the protests in 2011, and said that the Assad regime in Syria can conduct highly sophisticated surveillance on its citizens and journalists thanks to Russian-supplied hardware.
Panelists agreed that security in combat situations, as well as digital security, must be a high priority for journalists. A journalist is killed every 11 days, Smyth said, and in the face of a shifting structure in the field, "journalists must take responsibility for their own security." To view the discussion online visit <cpj.org/security/2012/06/spreading-the-security-message.php#more>.
—Meher Ahmad
